Ekwensu

 ( Igbo Gods ) 

Ekwensu is a trickster of the /ref> that serves as the Alusi (god) of Bargaining and the tortoise.Kanu, Ikechukwu, Anthony.“The Hellenization of African Traditional Deities: The Case of Ekwensu and Esu.” African Scholar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. Vol.22. No. 6. Sept. 2021. ISSN: 2110-2086. Crafty at trade and negotiations. He is often invoked for guidance in difficult mercantile situations. He is perceived as a spirit of violence that incites people to perform violent acts.

Despite contemporary interpretations, Ekwensu was not originally regarded as the devil. With the rise of Christianity, the more beneficent aspects of the deity were supplanted by Missionary who came to represent Ekwensu as Satan.A.I. Bewaji, John. "OLODUMARE: GOD IN YORUBA BELIEF AND THE THEISTIC PROBLEM OF EVIL." , University of Florida, Gainesville, April 03, 2010 Europeans influenced their beliefs of good and evil to convince Igbo that Ekwensu was Satan-like.Ezeh, P-J. “The Ekwensu Semantics and the Igbo Christian Theolinguistics.” Google, Google, 2005, https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=c291dGhzYXhvbnMuY29tfGJlcnJ 5fGd4OjMyMDg0MzNlMjA2Mzg5NTg. The goal of European' /ref>

The traditional Igbo do not think of Ekwensu as the force that stands in opposition to other beings. Hence, Ekwensu is the IGBO god of war, who guided warriors in battle. They were tricksters. They only believe in spirits whose nature is either good or bad, but they do have what humans know as an afterlife. /ref>

He was the testing force of Chukwu, and along with Ani the earth goddess, and Igwe, the sky god, make up the three highest Arusi of the ancient Igbo people.

• Odinani
• Eshu

• Opata, Damian U. Ekwensu In the Igbo Imagination: a Heroic Deity Or Christian Devil, Nsukka, Nigeria : Great AP Express, 2005.
• Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (New York: Doubleday, 1993).
• Opata, Damian U. Haunted Ontologies: Translation and Trauma in Postcolonial Igbo Society of Southeastern Nigeria.